Entertainment PR Meeting Recap
By Sara Lawrence
This Tuesday, PRSSA welcomed Grady grads Rae Votta and Kristina Kelly to hear all about their experiences working in Entertainment PR. Let’s meet our speakers and hear what they have to say about their careers in the industry!
Rae Votta: Senior Global Podcast Content Lead at Netflix
Kristina Kelly: Vice President of Communications at UPtv and AspireTV
Their Time at UGA and Early Career:
Votta graduated early from UGA with her bachelor’s degree in journalism. While at UGA, she was heavily involved in the Red & Black, working on the crime beat in addition to serving as a recruitment and opinion editor. After graduating, Votta worked for Teacher for America, but left to go back to UGA to get her master’s degree in linguistics. Her first job was at Atlantic Records before moving to New York City.
Kelly also graduated early from UGA and was involved in PRSSA. She noted that a lot of the PR classes at UGA during the time were focussed on nonprofit/corporate PR, which motivated her to get an internship in LA at Lifetime TV before her senior year to get experience in entertainment. She taught a mini course on Entertainment PR as a senior in college and ended up working full time at Lifetime TV after graduation before returning to Atlanta.
Advice for Entertainment PR:
Votta advised students to be open to opportunities that don’t look like the path they thought they were going to take after graduation. For her, she interviewed with Netflix three years prior to getting her current job. She realized that you don’t have to get your dream job as your first job, and she believes she was prepared to work for Netflix through her other jobs first.
Kelly stressed the importance of practicing writing and having excellent writing samples for employers. She recommended volunteering for nonprofits as a way to help others while also building your portfolio with writing samples and other materials. She also talked about how important is is to network and follow up with your connections so it is more than a one-time connection.
Both Votta and Kelly agreed that Entertainment PR is not as glamorous as it may seem. There is a lot of hard work behind the scenes.
Day-to-Day:
Votta works on the strategy, production and promotion of Netflix’s podcasts, which she described as “an arm of production and marketing”, as the podcasts serve to promote Netflix’s TV shows and movies. A lot of her time is spent in strategy meetings and working with external marketing.
Kelly’s job reports directly under the CEO, working on both external and internal communications, which includes managing employee announcements, sending brand stories to trade outlets and garnering publicity for a variety of movies and series. She is in charge of pitching a lot of different brands with different stories to different outlets. Working a lot on strategy and with marketing, social and on-air teams, Kelly stressed that all communication timelines start with PR.
Both Votta and Kelly agreed that there are a lot of meetings, which can make it hard to get work done in between.
Maintaining a Work-Life Balance:
Votta talked about how she was very willing to do everything in her early career, and noted that the fun stuff that you want to do is often what you have to put more time into. She also advised that students should not overwork themselves and recognize when they may be in a toxic work environment that they need to leave.
Kelly agreed that she worked a ton of hours starting out and felt like she was never really “off.” She traveled a lot early on because she wanted to, but as she has grown in her career, she is able to set her own boundaries. She shared with us that she did not become a personal publicist to be able to maintain more balance in her life.
Best Industry Experience:
Votta came up with the idea to market the Netflix nature documentary “Our Planet” to younger audiences by using younger celebrities in promotional efforts. This led her to take 2 Netflix stars, Lana Condor and Zoey Deutch, on a luxury safari in 2018.
Kelly has worked on two shows with The Rock, attended a party at the Versace mansion in Miami, met her childhood crush and gets to vote in the Emmy Awards as a Television Academy member.
What Surprised Them About the Industry:
Votta talked about not expecting the sexism that she experienced in an entry-level position in the music industry.
Kelly discussed how there has been a noticeable shift in Entertainment PR throughout her career, as reporters used to tell people what to watch, but now they wait to see what people are talking about to decide what to write about. Now Entertainment PR is less about premiere press. She also noted how she did not realize how much work went into a campaign.
Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Room:
Votta prides herself on always speaking up and educating those around her on how to be respectful of others, even if that means confronting her male colleagues about something inappropriate that they said.
Kelly said that seeing no women executives in a company is a red flag. She also stated that she uses her role to coach people on how to be inclusive and avoid saying the wrong things by framing it as “from a PR perspective.”
We learned so much about the Entertainment PR industry from Rae Votta and Kristina Kelly and could not thank them enough for joining us this week! Make sure to mark your calendars for Tuesday, April 25 for our Senior Banquet!
